Although it sounds benign and “grassroots,” Neighborhood Watch developed as a national phenomenon and institution in the early 1970s largely as a reaction to the Black freedom movement.

[…]

‘Watch groups’ auxiliaries of the state

Neighborhood Watch groups and patrols, funded by the Department of Justice and administered by the National Sheriffs’ Association since 1972, naturally function as auxiliaries to the state. In 2002, Neighborhood Watch was expanded to become USAonWatch so that its volunteers could feed information about “terrorist” activity to the Department of Homeland Security.

The example of Twin Lakes

The Retreat at Twin Lakes townhouse complex where Trayvon was murdered . . .  is now less than 50 percent white. In September 2011, a Neighborhood Watch group was established with the help of the Sanford police.

It is fairly obvious that it came into existence as a reaction to the shifting demographics of the neighborhood. Problems in the community started when “foreclosures forced owners to rent out to low-lives and gangsters,” said Frank Taaffe, Twin Lakes and former Neighborhood Watch Block Captain. This thinly-veiled language leaves absolutely no doubt to the group’s racist character. It is not just a question of the mind and psychology of George Zimmerman.

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